Did anyone else hear about this? Click ‘read more’ to get my full thoughts on the matter:

With the holiday season in full bloom, I started doing a bit of research looking into the next-gen consoles. The Wii U appears to be pretty popular, so I was curious if the new Playstation or Xbox have announced anything recently. Upon doing my research, I found something pretty alarming. An IGN report stated that the future of gaming may be slightly altered on the new Xbox One. Basically, the idea is that the Xbox One might have some type of ‘anti-used game’ technology, which would force gamers to either only play new games, or the compatibility of used games would be limited in some way. Although off-topic, I also found that the Xbox One will also play blu-ray DVDs.

If you ask me, this is infuriating. Gaming has already become a highly expensive ordeal with games being about $60 each. To limit players on the games that they play is a show of pure greed on Microsoft’s part. With the new system, I can only imagine that game prices will increase, as well as the actual console probably costing several hundred dollars. Also, not only will people not be able to purchase cheaper, preowned games, but I assume the market for selling old games will also drop. Although some may argue that the anti-used consoles may improve the ‘online pass’ system, I think that this is going to aggravate a lot of gamers. Although it is unlikely a console will completely ban the use of all used or borrowed games, I think any restriction is a bad idea. Even though gaming companies may make more profit from people buying used games, I wonder who much this will be offset by people who refuse to buy games simply because it is too expensive.

This will only further push gamers away from console gaming and push them to other gaming models such as buying games from Steam. For those that aren’t familiar, Steam is an online video game store that allows you to download games right to your computer. They frequently offer sales and bundle deals, which helps gamers save money. Since the games download straight to your computer, Steam has zero transportation, packaging, or shipping related costs. As long as you wait for appropriate sales, you can get some really great deals. To put it into perspective, I have Portal, Portal 2, Super Meat Boy, and Braid for an impressive grand total of $17.

When the Xbox One and PS4 are released, I’ll be in no rush to buy a new system. I look forward to playing high-quality, reduced-priced games as a result of the new consoles being released. Keep an eye out for great deals! You never know what you might find. If you are a Reddit.com user, /r/GameDeals does a great job informing people what games are on sale.